Director: Toru Kamei Language: Japanese Mitsu Dan burst out of nowhere in her 30s last year to permeate the tabloid media, after her performance in this racy film as a seemingly demure but actually predatory heroine with a past full of dark sado-masochistic secrets. ...

Millions of people in northern Europe are still battling snow and ice, wondering why they are being punished with bitter cold when — officially — spring has arrived and Earth is in the grip of global warming. Yet some scientists, eyeing the fourth year ...

Director: David Koepp Language: English Bike-courier thriller “Premium Rush” never opened in theaters here, but if you have ever pondered the possibilities of a career in bike delivery, this one is HUGE. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is his coolest self as New York courier Wilee, careening ...

Good news for sci-fi/horror geeks with big and generous hearts who have nothing to do on a spring Sunday but to check out this “Alien”-meets-“28 Days Later”-meets-“Species”-and-they-decide-to-move-in-together-to-save-on-rent kind of movie. And not so good news for the rest of us. “Crawlspace” is brought to ...

Director: Takeshi Kitano Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) Coming out in Japan on April 12 are the English-subbed DVD and Blu-ray of “Outrage Beyond,” Takeshi Kitano’s triumphant return to yakuza-movie form. This film about a devious cop who manipulates two big gangs into a ...

Stocks fell Thursday, pressured by profit-taking after falls in overseas equities and the yen’s strengthening on the back of rekindled economic and political concerns in the Eurozone. The Nikkei 225 average closed down 157.83 points, or 1.26 percent, at 12,335.96. On Wednesday, the key ...

The Rolling Stones will play Britain’s Glastonbury Festival, the world’s largest outdoor music and performing arts spectacle, organizers said Wednesday. The group has not played the festival before, but speculation mounted that they could make an appearance after they revealed last year they were ...

Blogs

The leader of an earthquake research team admits they made an erroneous announcement confirming the presence of an active fault near Tokyo after mistaking an apparent buried concrete column for natural stone.

The father of a woman with Down syndrome who sued to regain her right to vote slams the state for appealing a court ruling that declared unconstitutional a legal provision that denies voting rights to adults under guardianship.

In order of predicted finish: Yomiuri Giants Manager: Tatsunori Hara 2012: 86-43-15, 1st The Giants led the CL in runs, home runs and stolen bases last season, and there’s more where that came from. Reigning MVP Shinnosuke Abe is unlikely to replicate a monster ...

British scientists have developed a “holy grail” vaccine for foot-and-mouth disease that is safer and more resilient than current vaccines, according to an article published in the journal PLOS Pathogens on Wednesday. At the moment, animals are given a small dose of live infectious ...

The mortality rate of elderly nursing-care facility residents in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, jumped nearly 2.7 times after they evacuated the city in the days after the March 11, 2011, nuclear disaster, a study finds.

A 38-year-old Japanese woman sentenced to death for attempting to smuggle drugs into Malaysia on Wednesday lost her appeal. The three-man bench of the Court of Appeal, the second-highest court in the country, unanimously rejected Mariko Takeuchi’s appeal. Takeuchi was convicted and sentenced to ...

North Korea’s top leaders are to meet in the coming days to decide on an unspecified “important” issue, official media said Wednesday, as tensions simmer on the Korean Peninsula. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party’s Central Committee will convene its plenary meeting before ...

By 2040, the populations of all 47 of Japan’s prefectures will be less than their 2010 levels, a health ministry-affiliated research institute said Wednesday, with Okinawa marking the least decline, followed by Tokyo. Meanwhile, people aged 65 or over will make up more than ...

Testing will begin in Japan on a new, noninvasive prenatal test to check for chromosomal abnormalities, but it will be limited to pregnant women deemed at risk of having babies with Down syndrome or other disorders.

A bill to approve vaccines to help prevent cervical cancer in girls is expected to clear the Diet this week but reports of serious side effects have prompted mothers to form a nationwide victims’ support group. The bill would add vaccines against human papillomavirus ...

New Jersey’s lower house has voted to pass a resolution recognizing the women and girls forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the war. Introduced to the state legislative body last September, 76 of the 80 assembly members approved last Thursday the ...